UFO
UFO' was the first live action television series created by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson and produced by Century 21 Productions. It was inspired during the making of Doppelgänger and aimed at an adult audience; showing relationship difficulties, drug use and a rather macabre alien intention. which initially lead to airing times being set at 11:00pm. 26 episodes lasting 50 mins each, were first aired 16th September 1970. Synopsis Set ten years in the future (1980), a race of aliens from a dying planet make individual attacks on the Earth in order to harvest human organs. SHADO (Supreme Headquarters Alien Defence Organisation), a covert operation hidden under the Harlington-Straker Studios movie studios in England and headed by Commander Ed Straker who is a former United States Air Force Colonel and astronaut, who poses as the studio's chief executive. Supported by an off world "Moonbase", and a fleet of submarines, "Skydiver", the approaching UFOs are initially detected by an Earth orbiting satellite named "SID" (Space Intruder Detector). Lines of defence are as follows; attempts are made in space with three Interceptors launched from Moonbase. A second attempt is made in the Earth's atmosphere with a fighter plane, "Sky One", launched from Skydiver. Landed UFO's are tracked down with ground Mobiles. SHADO continuously attempts to thwart the alien invasions, and their various strategies to disable SHADO; while maintaining SHADO's security, funding and maintaining operatives general well being. Commander Straker's seconds in command are Col. Alec Freeman, Col. Paul Foster, and Col. Virginia Lake. Moonbase is often commanded by Lt. Gay Ellis. Cast Main Cast Ed_Straker.png| Commander Ed Straker (Ed Bishop) Alec_Freeman.png|Colonel Alec Freeman (George Sewell) Virginia_Lake.png|Colonel Virginia Lake (Wanda Ventham) Paul_Foster.png|Colonel Paul Foster (Michael Billington) James_Henderson.png|General James Henderson (Grant Taylor) Doug_Jackson.png|Doctor Doug Jackson (Vladek Sheybal) Gay_Ellis.png|Lieutenant Gay Ellis (Gabrielle Drake) General Cast Nina_Barry.png|Lieutenant Nina Barry (Dolores Mantez) Joan_Harrington.png|Lieutenant Joan Harrington (Antonia Ellis) Keith_Ford.png|Lieutenant Keith Ford (Keith Alexander) Miss_Ealand.png|Miss Ealand (Norma Ronald) Ayshea_Johnson.png|Lieutenant Ayshea Johnson (Ayshea Brough) Lew_Waterman.png|Captain Lew Waterman (Gary Myers) Peter_Carlin.png|Captain Peter Carlin (Peter Gordeno) Sylvia_Howell.png|Lieutenant Sylvia Howell (Georgina Moon) *Voice of SID - Mel Oxley *Voice of Voiceprint Identification - Jeremy Wilkin Episode List (Production Order) *1. Identified *2. Computer Affair *3. Flight Path *4. Survival *5. Exposed *6. Conflict *7. The Dalotek Affair *8. A Question of Priorities *9. Ordeal *10. The Responsibility Seat *11. The Square Triangle *12. Court Martial *13. Close Up *14. Confetti Check A-O.K *15. E.S.P *16. Kill Straker *17. Sub-Smash *18. The Sound of Silence *19. The Cat With Ten Lives *20. Destruction *21. The Man Who Came Back *22. The Psychobombs *23. Reflections In The Water *24. Timelash *25. Mindbender *26. The Long Sleep (Broadcast Order - see notes below) *1. Identified *2. Exposed *3. Kill Straker *4. The Cat With Ten Lives *5. Conflict *6. E.S.P *7. The Sound of Silence *8. A Question of Priorities *9. The Square Triangle *10. Sub-Smash *11. Destruction *12. Computer Affair *13. Close Up *14. The Psychobombs *15. Survival *16. Mindbender *17. Flight Path *18. Ordeal *19. The Man Who Came Back *20. The Dalotek Affair *21. Timelash *22. The Responsibility Seat *23. The Long Sleep *24. Court Martial *25. Confetti Check A-O.K *26. Reflections In The Water (Official Carlton Running Order ) *1. Identified *2. Computer Affair *3. Flight Path *4. Exposed *5. Survival *6. Conflict *7. The Dalotek Affair *8. A Question of Priorities *9. Ordeal *10. The Square Triangle *11. Court Martial *12. Close Up *13. Confetti Check A-O.K *14. The Responsibility Seat *15. E.S.P *16. Kill Straker *17. Sub-Smash *18. The Sound of Silence *19. The Cat With Ten Lives *20. Destruction *21. The Man Who Came Back *22. The Psychobombs *23. Reflections In The Water *24. Timelash *25. Mindbender *26. The Long Sleep (ATV First Run) *1. Identified *2. Exposed *3. Survival *4. Conflict *5. A Question of Priorities *6. The Square Triangle *7. Ordeal *8. E.S.P *9. Close Up *10. Court Martial *11. Confetti Check A-O.K *12. Kill Straker *13. Sub-Smash *14. The Dalotek Affair *15. Flight Path *16. Computer Affair *17. The Responsibility Seat *18. The Cat With Ten Lives *19. The Sound of Silence *20. Destruction *21. The Man Who Came Back *22. The Psychobombs *23. Mindbender *24. Reflections In The Water *25. The Long Sleep *26. Timelash Notes The broadcast order, is the premiere transmissions of each individual episode as shown around the various ITV regions, rather than the first transmission of ATV Midlands, Tyne-Tees and Border regions, who started their first transmission on September 16th 1970 (as usually listed in reference works). The difference is very significant as the ITV stations did not always show the episodes in the same order, a station that started screening the series months after the others have ended up screening certain episodes months before them, are some stations even premiered different episodes at the same time, for example, ATV, Tyne Tees, and Border each screened a different new episode at exactly the same time on the evening of October 7th 1970, so the broadcast premieres of Conflict, E.S.P and The Sound of Silence were simultaneous, (listed above in Production order). This also applies to The Square Triangle and Sub-Smash both transmitted for the first time on 11th November 1970, and Flight Path and Ordeal both transmitted for the first time on 20th January 1971. Previously published broadcast dates from only a single region has led to widely published statements that certain episodes (The Responsibility Seat and The Long Sleep) were not transmitted until 1973 because of their 'adult' content, yet both episodes were shown as part of Anglia's first run of the series in 1971. and only The Long Sleep was considered too 'adult' to be shown before 11.00pm. ITV Regions, Premiere Dates *'ATV' from September 16th 1970 *'Border' from September 16th 1970 *'Midlands' from September 16th 1970 *'Tyne-Tees' from September 16th 1970 *'Anglia ' from October 2nd 1970 *'Southern ' from February 20th 1971 *'Yorkshire ' from April 17th 1971 *'Granada ' from July 17th 1971 *'Grampian ' from July 17th 1971 *'London Weekend Television' from September 18th 1971. Trivia *Mysteriously, purple hair and alien descriptions are not revealed in the series. *A considerable amount of the cast's Christian names were used for the characters. *The Gull-wing doors had been around on the Mercedes 300SL since 1954 but where not again produced for road cars until the DeLorean DMC-12 in 1981 *Innovations include: Cordless phones, Car telephones (cell phones), spacecraft launched from aircraft, extensive use of computers in day-to-day life (also predicting and analysing human behaviour), electronic fingerprint scanning, voice print identification, spy satellites, meta data, left-hand drive cars driven on the right-hand side of the road in the UK. *Topical features include; Racial harmony, effect on operatives working in secret, space waste, toxic waste and the illegal farming of body parts. Gallery Category:Real World Category:Live Action Television Series Category:Television Series Category:UFO